Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said on Tuesday the formation of the ninth wage board for journalists and employees of newspapers and news agencies was the result of demands made by journalists and efforts of the ministry of information, reports BSS.
He attributed the formation of the 9th wage board to the combined efforts of journalists and the information ministry as well as the government's journalist-friendly guidelines while addressing a press conference in the Press Information Department (PID) auditorium in the city.
State Minister for Information Tarana Halim also spoke on the occasion.
Inu said that the government of Sheikh Hasina was journalist-friendly and it had announced the Fifth Wage Board Award in 1997. The next government did not announce any Wage Board Award. Journalists had to wait for more than ten years before they got the next Wage Board Award.
The government announced the Eighth Wage Board Award in 2013. It has now formed the Ninth Wage Board.
Responding to a question about the implementation of the Wage Board Awards, the minister said there was a monitoring committee, comprised of senior journalists, in the Department of Films and Publications (DFP) to oversee it. "The ministry has not received any complaints regarding its (monitoring committees) oversight or failure to do so. If we get complaints we will surely look into it," Inu said.
Referring to the gazette notification, he said, "It was done under Section 143 of the Bangladesh Labour Law, 2006 and provided for equal representation of owners and social and professional journalists and is headed by a retired judge of the Appellate Division, Justice Nizamul Haq."
"The board will come up with recommendations and we will follow it. We have no scope to interfere in their work," the minister added. "We will just provide secretarial support," he said.
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